


Out and Away

by EmberCartwright



Series: Tyzula Things [86]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Abusive Parents, Agni Kai (Avatar), Angst, Banishment, Emotional Hurt, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Not Canon Compliant, Physical hurt, tyzula - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29559318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberCartwright/pseuds/EmberCartwright
Summary: Upon accidentally discovering that Zuko and Ozai were plotting an arranged marriage for her, Azula stands up to her father for the first time in her life and pays a severe price.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Series: Tyzula Things [86]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019697
Comments: 11
Kudos: 119





	Out and Away

**Author's Note:**

> As recommended by azulalover50000 because i couldn't get it out of my head even though I swore I wouldn't write it...  
> The premises would be Zuko didn't get banished and Ty Lee didn't go to the circus.

“Just let me die,” Azula wailed as she lay curled up on her bed, facing the wall. 

“No,” Ty Lee said, grabbing her shoulder. 

Azula tried to shake her off but failed. Unable to free herself from Ty Lee’s grasp Azula clamped her hand down over Ty Lee’s fingers. 

“If you don’t let go I- I’ll burn you,” she threatened over sobs. 

“No you won’t,” Ty Lee said, confidently. "You're clearly self destructive but you wouldn't send away the only person that's with you right now."

“My life is over,” Azula said quietly. “What’s the point anymore?”

“You’re fifteen years old,” Ty Lee said, rubbing her hand gently. “Your life hasn’t even started yet.”

Azula turned over aggressively and sat up, glaring at Ty Lee. 

“What kind of life is there for a girl with half of a face!” She yelled at Ty Lee, pointing to the large bandage over her eye, ear and cheek. 

Ty Lee winced back involuntarily from her anger. 

Azula noticed and buried her intact eye in her hand. 

“Just go Ty,” she said. “Why are you still here?”

“I care about you,” Ty Lee said, taking her wrist and pulling it down from her eye. 

Azula looked at her again, her golden eye glittering from the tears swimming in it. Her expression was one of hurt and of pain, emotional and physical. 

“You don’t care about me,” Azula said. “It turns out that no one cares about me, even the only person I ever wanted to care.” 

Azula felt a pang in her chest as she said that, the only guilt she'd ever felt about a lie, but she couldn't tell Ty Lee how she felt, how much she wanted her to care. That would be weak of her.

“That’s not true,” Ty Lee said forcefully. “I’ve always cared about you.”

“Why,” Azula spat, hardening again. “All I’ve ever been is mean to you. Rude and aggressive and dismissive and hurtful,” she said, emphasizing each crime she had committed against the girl she was slowly realizing she was hopelessly in love with. 

“You’re right,” Ty Lee said.

Azula flared her nostrils and turned away, throwing herself down on the bed and curling up. 

“Save us both the trouble and leave right now,” Azula said, her voice breaking. “I don’t need you, I don’t need anyone. You're going to leave eventually”

“I’m not going to do that ‘Zula,” Ty Lee said.

“Yes you are,” Azula said bitterly. 

“I’m not and I’m going to tell you why,” Ty Lee said. “Yes you’ve been mean and you’ve hurt my feelings more times than I can count.”

As she said this Azula’s sobs got more aggressive, shaking her entire slim frame. 

Ty Lee put her hand down on Azula’s back, causing her to flinch but make no other movements. Ty Lee began stroking her back up and down. 

“But you aren’t just mean,” Ty Lee said. “You’re the funniest person I’ve ever met, and the smartest. You have a way with words that I’ve never seen in anyone else. You dominate any room you’ve ever been in. You've defended me and my honor countless times, even when you don't think I'll find out about it. When you touch me I just want to grab you and never let go. When your attention is on me, I feel like the only girl in the world.”

“I can’t do that anymore,” Azula said. “Don’t you understand? I’m not a princess anymore. I’m nothing. You don’t need to suck up anymore.”

“I’m not sucking up ‘Zula,” Ty Lee said. “If I was only around you because you were a princess I would have been long gone before you even stepped in that Agni Kai ring.”

“Maybe you’re pitying me,” Azula said. “Well you should stop. I’m about to embark on the rest of my life in exile. What are you going to do? Come with me?”

“Yes,” Ty Lee said.

Azula’s breath hitched and she rolled over. 

“No, absolutely not,” she said, looking at Ty Lee to see if she was serious. 

“I am serious,” Ty Lee said, recognizing the look. “Maybe with me you’ll find the Avatar faster!”

“The Avatar isn’t real Ty,” Azula said softly. “This is a permanent punishment. He’s sending me away since he can no longer sell me off to some wedding like chattel.”

“You can’t think like that,” Ty Lee said, resting her hand gently on Azula’s unharmed cheek. 

“No one has seen the Avatar in 100 years. This isn’t about a cosmic plan. This is about a fifteen year old, second child, daughter of a monarch who got too cocky and thought she was worth more than she really was,” Azula said. 

Ty Lee grabbed Azula’s shoulders and pulled her up into a hug. 

“You’re worth a hundred of him,” Ty Lee whispered into her ear as Azula sagged in her embrace. “And a thousand of your stupid brother. How dare he not step in?”

“What could Zuzu have done? He’s the runt, the lame duck. He was lucky to be born. He’s probably ecstatic I’m leaving because I was a major threat to his throne.”

“What kind of older brother helps set up an arranged marriage of his little sister to a forty year old creep,” Ty Lee whispered, rubbing Azula’s back. 

“He hates me. I was more mean to him than I was to you,” Azula said quietly. 

“Siblings fight,” Ty Lee said. “I fight with mine all the time. We play pranks on each other and even get physical but they’d all defend me until their last breath.”

“Well we aren’t a happy family here,” Azula said. 

“So Agni can take your family,” Ty Lee said. “I’m your new family now.”

Azula picked her arms up and closed them around Ty Lee tightly. 

“We’re going to do what you do best, win,” Ty Lee said. “We’re going to find the stupid Avatar or irrefutable proof he’s not coming back.”

“You don’t need to come,” Azula said. “It’s going to be hard, and most likely permanent.”

“Of course I do. I love you ‘Zula,” Ty Lee said. 

“You what,” Azula asked, choking on her breath. 

“I’m in love with you,” Ty Lee said. “You don’t have to love me back, I’m just trying to ex-”

“I love you too,” Azula said, stunning Ty Lee into silence. 

“You do?” Ty Lee asked. 

Azula nodded slightly. 

“I think about you all the time. I wonder what you’re doing when you aren’t with me. If I think about the future, it’s with you. It’s one of the reasons I fought so hard against the arranged marriage,” she said. 

“Oh no,” Ty Lee said, tearing up. “I’m sorry.”

“No it’s not your fault, of course,” Azula said. “You’re also the reason I fought back against him in the ring. Ty...”

“‘Zula?”

Azula placed her hands gently on Ty Lee’s face and stroked her cheeks. 

“Ty,” Azula said again, tears running down her cheeks.

Ty Lee placed one hand on Azula’s unburned cheek, and the other on her shoulder. 

“You shouldn’t throw away your life over me,” Azula whispered. 

“You are my life. The most important part of it, anyway,” Ty Lee said. “I’d be throwing it away if I let you leave.”

Azula swallowed and Ty Lee squeezed her shoulder. 

“Can I kiss you,” Ty Lee asked. “I know you probably didn’t want to have your first kiss like this, I know I didn’t think it woul-”

Azula cut her off by pressing her lips against hers. 

Ty Lee pressed forward gently for a few moments and then pulled away. 

“I’m surprised you still wanted to kiss me,” Azula said, hovering her fingers above her bandage. 

“You fought valiantly ‘Zula. Even Ozai was surprised how close to his level you actually were,” Ty Lee said. 

“Not good enough,” Azula said. 

“It doesn’t matter now,” Ty Lee said. “Now there’s something new to focus on.”

“The imaginary Avatar,” Azula said, rolling her eye. 

“Me and you, traveling the world to find the Avatar,” Ty Lee said. 

“Not without me,” a voice came from the doorway. 

Azula looked up and Ty Lee turned around. 

“Mai!” Ty Lee exclaimed. 

“Well this is a surprise,” Azula said, sounding genuinely shocked. “I thought you would pick my brother.”

“I thought Zuko was a better person. His role in this is unforgivable.” 

“Why would you give up your comfortable life to live in exile with us,” Azula asked. 

Ty Lee perked up at the use of “us.”

“You are bound to be the next Fire Lady if you stay here,” Azula said, raising her eyebrow. 

“I’m the same age as you,” Mai deadpanned. “I want to be married just as little as you do, I’m just not going to publicly fight my father about it.”

Azula smirked. If she was going to spend the rest of her life in banishment she was a little glad to be taking Mai and her dry humor with them. Ty Lee was great but Mai balanced the group. 

“So what? The three of us are going to get on a boat and sail around the world looking for a myth?”

“It’ll be fun!” Ty Lee said. “At least we’ll get to see the world! Not a lot of people get that opportunity!”

“A sorry trade for what I could have had,” Azula grumbled. 

“Children at sixteen and the unbearable resentment and jealousy of watching your incompetent brother take what you feel should be yours? Even being the greatest prodigy this nation has ever seen couldn’t save you,” Mai said. 

Azula tightened her fists and Ty Lee shot Mai a dirty look. 

Mai sighed and sat down on the bed next to them. 

“It’s your job to love her and coddle her or whatever, but I’m going to hold myself to the hard truths. Your life here was going nowhere fast. None of our lives were.”

Azula relaxed her hands and collapsed into Ty Lee, who wrapped her arms protectively around her torso. 

“I can’t believe this,” Azula said. “I just can’t believe it…”

“Look in the mirror,” Mai suggested. 

“Hey! That was totally uncalled for,” Ty Lee said, hugging Azula close. 

Mai shrugged. 

“When do we leave,” she asked, changing the topic. 

“Tomorrow morning I have to be out,” Azula said. 

“Are you two going to share a room now,” Mai asked. 

“Why would we,” Azula asked, narrowing her eye. 

“The love confessions?”

“You were listening?” Azula asked. 

“I wasn’t going to interrupt a tender moment,” Mai said. 

“And you want to third wheel around the world?” Azula asked.

“We’re friends first,” Mai said. “Plus, someone has to keep you two focused.”

“Fair,” Azula said, running her hands over Ty Lee’s. “Let’s discuss sleeping arrangements for the exile tomorrow,” she said. “I’m tired.”

Mai nodded and stood up. 

“Until tomorrow,” she said, brushing out of the room. 

Ty Lee stood up too and Azula looked at her, panic in her eye. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” Ty Lee said, taking off her shirt and pants, just leaving her undergarments. 

Azula relaxed a little as Ty Lee got into the bed and wrapped her arms around her. 

“Wait,” Azula said, as Ty Lee pulled her against her chest. “My father… He wouldn't like...”

“What can he do,” Ty Lee murmured as she kissed the top of Azula’s head. “Banish you?”


End file.
